The Live Lovely Manifesto

Simple Living With Live Lovely

Live Lovely is my manifesto. I experienced a fair amount of trauma growing up and into my mid twenties and have turned to wellbeing and simple living to heal my life. “Live Lovely” is a motto I use to remind myself to live a life of gratitude and to live compassionately towards myself and others. I started blogging in 2012 for my photography business and in 2016 I started to share not just my photography and travels, but to also articles I write about subjects I am passionate about.

Live Lovely is a lifestyle blog focusing on the New England lifestyle, simple living, wellbeing, and travel throughout my local New England and far away. In my blog you will discover articles on simple living, gardening, recipes, crafts and tutorials, book reviews, home decor, New England and travel.

If you came to this site looking for my wedding photography, you can see my collections and my work at my business website LiveLovelyPhotography.com.

A Little Bit About Courtney

I live in New England. Connecticut is a small state, but I truly love living here.
Living simply is important to me. I am no longer a minimalist, but simple living is at my core. I currently rent a small cottage in the countryside with my husband and our two cats.
I dream to one day have a conversion van and travel across the United States.
Enjoying adventures both local and around the globe is one of my favorite things to do. I love blogging about my travels because photography and writing are two of my favorite things.
I am an avid reader and enjoy discussing books.
What do I love to read? Travel memoirs, books about photography, business books, positive psychology, and a lot of contemporary romance novels. (I blame this one of my passion for wedding photography. It may have inspired my reading choices somewhat.) I have also started reading more classics and some mysteries. Lately I have been reading many of the children’s classics that I missed out on as a kid.
I collect and listen to old vinyl records. I do love modern music (I adore rock and roll), but I tend to lean towards the oldies like the 1950s and 1960s bands.
Although I try my best to be minimalist with my home, I have a home library that is currently overflowing with books I love. I stopped away from minimalism in 2019 and focused on simple living instead.
I’m in love with vintage fashion, music, and movies. My styling is usually influenced by my love for old films and vintage photography. The books I read also influence my clothing choices. But when winter comes, my uniform is usually a thick pair of pants and an oversized knit sweater.
I married the man I fell in love with fifteen (almost sixteen!) years ago when I was eighteen! Our wedding was on June 16th 2018.
I’m obsessed with sunflowers. If I were a flower I would be a sunflower.
In the summer I cannot keep my shoes on. I have to be barefoot outside in the grass or in a lake.
Kayaking is one of my favorite hobbies.
My cat’s names are Madeleine and Monet.

The Adventures

Not all of my travels are far. I believe that there are adventures to be had right outside your own front door, which is why a majority of my travel posts are about my native New England. Every year we do our best to travel often, both locally and as far as we can afford to go.

Several years ago I found a gorgeous book about France with amazing photos and personal stories by the photographer. I loved it, however, while looking at the photos I realized that there are also many beautiful places right here at my home base in Connecticut. There is so much beauty to discover right where you are, which is why I decided to turn a lot of my exploration inward and to places nearby in my beloved New England. People travel from all over the world to visit New England, especially in the summer and autumn. Instead of daydreaming about far off places that I cannot afford to fly to just now, I made a wish list of all the local places that I love or want to visit. I am living for today and appreciating the life that I have right now. I call these posts my “Connecticut Charm” and “New England Living” series. It satisfies my wanderlust and the photojournalist inside me. Truly, it makes my soul happy!

Most of my travel posts are from my home state of Connecticut, and Connecticut sure does have a lot of charm. A beautiful seashore, over 300 lakes and ponds, lovely mountains for hiking (although very small, we do have part of the Appalachian trail that runs through our state), gorgeous small towns, museums, libraries, cafes, places to eat, and fabulous cities. I adore photographing New England.